Day 9 Normanton to Bang Bang Rest Area 115 kms

Even though we are heading to a bush camp, everyone seems to be in high spirits. The wind is behind them today and they are beating us to every stop. Morning tea was sandwiches today and everyone seemed to enjoy them. Woody had once again ridden through today and I hope he stops for lunch. Morning tea was finished by 9.30 am and we were only going another 28 kms for lunch.

They were all at the lunch break but I'm not sure what was discussed or the atmosphere as I decided to remain in the car to prepare the meat loaves for the dinner tonight. It was hot & steamy in the car but at least there were no flies. 3 loaves were prepared and I was able to leave the hot box. Just as I left the car, the riders started heading out. What was the rush, it was only just going 11.45 am and we were heading to a bush camp? They only had 37 kms to go and the wind still up their behinds. Annie & Melanie decided to hang around at lunch for as long as we would let them and eating all my sweet biscuits. They were like a couple of teenagers, reading the graffiti on the shelter, laughing over the raunchy ones and singing songs from their teenage years. It was entertaining but I had a meal to prepare. So I moved them on around 12.30.

EVERYONE was in at Bang Bang rest area by 2 pm and it was amusing to see them all sitting around wondering what to do with themselves in the heat of the day. Jacquei & Ben helped me with the peeling of the potatoes and Ben also did the pumpkin. Jacquei made the coleslaw for us as well. John, the fire master, and Robbo, the wood collector did a great job with my stove (the campfire). I ended up with 3 meatloaves in one camp oven, boiled potatoes & pumpkin (mashed) in the other pot with a cake cooking at the top of the pot. 

It was a lovely camp site with flush toilets. Plenty of room to spread out which everyone did. Not alot of other campers at the rest area- we may have scared a few off as they came & went very quickly. Lovely sitting around the camp fire and checking the night sky through an app on my computer which named most stars for us and showed where the satellites are. I saw a few shooting stars and made very basic wishes with one coming true pretty well immediately- I wished for an ice cold drink and then Collis handed me one which had been made from the melting ice and lime juice. Very much appreciated. The usual pitched in to help with the clean up after the meal and it was all finished in record time. A big thank you to Ben for his assistance tonight with the preparation and the cleaning up.

The quietest night we've had so far although there were dingoes howling early in the night but we didn't see any. Just 2 trucks came in over the road around 9 pm and then nothing (that I heard) for the rest of the night. The trucks left around 4 am and it was just a bit of background noise.